Sunday, December 8, 2013

Thomas Friedman, who is one of my favorite New York Times columnists, writes that the "digital divide" is disappearing: soon everyone (or nearly everyone) across the world will have a computer screen and Internet access... So the real divide will become the "motivational divide." Those who are motivated to continually learn, to continually push themselves, to take advantage of new opportunities and build new skills - these people will be the winners. He takes all of this from futurist, Marina Gorbis, by the way.Says Friedman:

In that world, argues futurist Marina Gorbis, the big divide will be
“the motivational divide” — who has the self-motivation, grit and
persistence to take advantage of all the free or cheap online tools to
create, collaborate and learn. (http://nyti.ms/J3puIR).

Internet Marketing and the Motivational Divide

Much of what I teach about SEO, Social Media, and even AdWords is technical: how to do this, how not to do that, how to optimize a page to show up on Google for a keyword, how to think about an effective landing page. Yet once you've learned the rules there are two big obstacles:

Implementation. Will you? Can you? Implement what you have learned? So many people take the classes yet fail to implement, yet knowledge without practical implementation is worthless. What is your implementation strategy?

Motivation. Life-long learning, never-stop-learning and all that jazz. Google, Facebook, YouTube... they are constantly tweaking the rules, and users are also ever-evolving. Three years ago who had heard of Pinterest? Of rich snippets? Microdata? What is your strategy to stay motivated as a life-long learning.

Knowledge, Implementation, Motivation

Knowing what to do: the first step. Implementing it: the second step. Staying motivated: the never-ending step. In life, yes. In SEO, yes. In social media marketing, yes. In AdWords, yes.

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Jeff Bezos of Amazon demonstrated a masterful control of public relations by appearing on "60 Minutes" and announcing Amazon's intent to create delivery drones. Couch potatoes of the world immediately leaned forward at their TV's or streaming Internet devices in cheers: now, popcorn and candy bars could be delivered via the air, in mere hours... Making it every more unnecessary to get up off the coach.

Amazon Drones and Purple Cows

Marketing Guru Seth Godin in his book, Purple Cow, argues that the ordinary is risky, but the extraordinary - the Purple Cow - at the edge of the road is not only the thing that will make you stop but the thing that will sell more... What? Stuff.

Amazon's drones may make it to the real world, or not. But in the day before "Cyber Monday" to be featured on "60 Minutes" and to be able to garner massive FREE public relations' buzz about delivery drones... That was priceless (to use another marketing slogan).

Why Care?

But who cares? You do. Why? Because Amazon drones and Purple Cows teach you something about marketing your own stuff. What is your "Purple Cow?" What is your over-the-top excuse for massive publicity and buzz... What is your "Amazon Drone" that can get them talking, even if it isn't a real product, even if it never will be, but even if your Cyber Monday is tomorrow?